Clearing the Air
The Hazy Future of Our Skies
An eight-part series about air pollution in Colorado and how we are navigating this complex problem that knows no borders.
Watch our video trailer!
Episode 1: Something in the Air
Our air is a complex soup of ingredients – which impacts the health of all of us, our economy, and our climate. But those health burdens are not shared equally. What does it mean to have access to clean air? And when people’s health is at risk and tradeoffs need to be made, how do we solve this complicated problem?
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Episode 2: Clean Up Your Act
For years Colorado’s Front Range has repeatedly failed to meet the EPA’s national air quality standards, putting local policymakers and regulators under pressure to fix the air pollution affecting us all. But what made us care about air quality in the first place? From the Brown Cloud that hung over Denver in the ’70s and ’80s to the landmark Clean Air Act, we break down the science and policies that propelled us to start to clean up our air.
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Episode 3: The Heart of a Debate
There is a long history of disproportionately impacted neighborhoods in Colorado, which are predominately communities of color and low income, experiencing the unequal impact of air pollution. And while there are competing interests, values, and needs when it comes to deciding what to do, it’s critical to consider who gets represented and heard. Do the policies truly address the issue? And who bears the cost? We all have the right to clean air, no matter where we live. But safeguarding our air is about making hard decisions and looking at the issues from multiple angles. People often want there to be a single source or single industry to blame for air pollution, but unfortunately, the air doesn’t work that way.
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Episode 4: The Road to Change
An estimated 4.2 million premature deaths are associated with outdoor air pollution each year. And traffic emissions are one of the leading contributors, with those living within a quarter mile or so of a busy road at greatest risk. But statistics and facts will only get you so far. To change perceptions and policy, the issue must be brought to a human level. And while our air quality has improved over the years, there is still work to be done, especially with communities most at risk.
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Episode 5: Driving Behavior
Whether you’ve had a direct experience with bad air, followed the air quality index on your phone, or formally learned about the importance of clean air, awareness can be a key driver for change. But once we know how poor air quality can impact our health, what does it take to change our behaviors — either to reduce our exposure or how we contribute to it?
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Episode 6: Harnessing Energy and Numbers
Colorado is the fifth largest oil-producing state in the country, and the state’s economy benefits from keeping the industry running. But oil and gas are also a major source of emissions to local air quality and climate change. And we all have a vested interest in reducing emissions, which has economic and social costs to our health and environment. So how do we balance the demand for energy with the realities on the ground? What does the dance look like between the speed to clean up operations, the transition to new innovation, the limitations of business models, the standardization of data, and the need to protect the health of each other and our planet?
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Episode 7: A New Wave
Often there is a cultural catalyst that sparks change. And that catalyst can come from people being empowered with data, knowledge, and opportunity. From Pueblo to Aurora to other parts of Colorado, communities are finding traditional and new ways to engage in the change they want for their future. This could be things like a closer collaboration with the government to install a community air monitoring network, training individuals on how to engage in policy, or pushing for large-scale change, such as the energy transition, which can have the co-benefits of helping with both climate change and local air pollution. And many communities are looking for those win-wins, where they can tackle pollution while creating jobs and a new economy for a region.
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Episode 8: Steps Forward
From supporting the wickedly smart and engaged next generation to learning how to work together in new and more meaningful ways, our last episode explores what it means to truly empower people to solve our air quality issues. Change has been slow and incremental, but change is happening. And while bad air affects us all, no matter where we live, the burden is not equal. Since our air is often invisible, it can be easy to ignore. But as we gain knowledge, it just might be harder to look away.
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Bonus Episode: Dry Air
The San Luis Valley has always had dust storms. The problem now is that as water dwindles, temperatures warm, a multi-decade drought rages on, and people continue altering the landscape, dust is increasing - and breathing it in can have significant health impacts.
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Bonus Episode: The Right to Breathe
In this special bonus episode, we talk with Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, founder and director of The Ella Roberta Foundation based in South London, UK. She and her legal team made history when a coroner found a direct link between her daughter Ella Roberta's death at nine years old from a fatal asthma attack and the air quality near her home along one of London’s busiest roads. Eleven years after this tragic life-changing event, Rosamund reflects on her journey to becoming a global clean air advocate in honor of her daughter's legacy.
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Laws of Notion Podcast
Check out previous seasons of our award-winning podcast series, Laws of Notion. Listen here or find it on your favorite podcast app.
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